I just started school for the year. I think I really only finished about a week before, but knowing that I will need to take time off for a move and a new baby, I am trying to plan ahead.

It is exciting to be teaching 5 students at once. Really everyone needs help with their math which is very mentally stimulating. One huge blessing is having four readers. It is nice that many of them are learning lots on their own and learning how to read and follow directions.

We are reading through the Little House On The Prairie series, we have done some related map work, and made a list of their work compared to ours. It really helps me be aware of the fact that most of my work is picking up and organizing stuff. I am on the lookout for ways to scale back on that problem, I am sure a move will help a bit.

I am doing a weekly blog over at the Homeschool Blogger Company Front Porch, so it is a struggle to get things posted here, but I do appreciate reading what everyone else has to say.

Blessings,

Jennifer

I haven't posted here for a while porque, I have to come up with something inspiring every week for homeschoolblogger at www.homeschoolblogger.com/hsbcompanyblog which is really taxing my lazy brain.

I am going to be speaking next Saturday at the CFS conference in Escondido (near San Diego) and so I have been trying really hard to keep to our schedule so that my darling teenage daughter doesn't blast me with comments such as "Mom, I think you have only done that once" when I talk about kids preparing snacks and other tidbits.

It is nice to have children who encourage us to do our best, even as we encourage them in the same way. To stay on track with our good habits, we all took a few moments this morning to clean up rooms, brush teeth and tidy the house.  They are all outside now working on their little gardens and washing up horse gear in hopes they can catch our neighbor's horses (they have permission from the neighbor).  Scott is busy at the orphanage directing a group who are building another bedroom for them.  It will be a huge blessing for them to have the boys not sleeping in the living room.

I am still struggling to figure out how to upload pictures.  Every few months I figure it out and then don't use my newfound knowledge for a few months and forget.

The sun is finally shining here!  We have been rained in and because of the rain, out of water(there is some irony there)every weekend this month.  The rain turns the road to mush which means the water truck can't get in until the road dries.  It is nice however to have some green hills to look at here in normally dry Baja.

I flew through Bible, history and math yesterday so we could spend the nicest part of the day planting strawberries, spreading compost and lovingly potting a kangaroo paw(a flower, not the foot of a mammal).  I do hope it all lives.  The soil here seems to be completely dead!  About half of what I plant dies, good thing most of it is free stuff.  Geraniums are the one thing that seem to do well.  That and my aloes which are rapidly making progeny.

We spent the hour before supper finishing up language and then after supper watched Lillies of The Field, with Sydney Poitier. It was fun to see all the cultures in this sweet movie.

Ella turned one yesterday, It is amazing how fast the time has gone.  We were gone all day using our free zoo passes that the children won from the library and taking Emelie to her speech club.  Today has been catch up, laundry(very difficult without regular power) clean up, math, Eden's program, preschool with Emmett, change diapers, wash dishes, etc. etc.

I do enjoy caring for my children and home, but a day like this after being gone for a day, sure does wear me out.  My boys just came inside from hauling buckets of gravel, I am glad they got some exercise and created some more mud free paths for us.

We were at a park for a few minutes to see Scott's dad.  I am not really taller than my dear husband.

We had a great time with these families fixing a bathroom for an orphanage(mostly the men and older boys) and visiting and caring for babies.  I especially enjoyed getting to know these two homeschool moms.

We are studying Early American History this year, and in my quest to save money on curriculum, I did not buy one for history.  I have to admit, I had quite a collection of materials from my 10 years of homeschooling, and I was helped by my sweet friend, Jennifer Steward .

I have so far been reading The Light And The Glory For Children,  A Childs Story of America, (borrowed from Kate ) and Calico Bush, as story of Colonial Maine.  It has been great to read aloud more, do oral and written narration and use my collection of coloring books for coloring pages.  I had been using Story of The World, which I liked, except felt we missed a view of God's providence in history.  It is important to be discerning, one view of God's will and work, might not match with another one, (could Jamestown really be called a Christian settlement?) but I don't want to leave God out of history.

We are having fun, the children drew pictures of Indian homes, built a log cabin out of sticks, and we had a Mayflower day where we ate pea soup and crackers for lunch aboard our boat(the living room rug).

Teaching my children history is one of my favorite reasons to homeschool

Glenda was at my house yesterday.  She is a Mexican woman from Chiapas, a state in the South of Mexico.  She was telling me about her husbands relationship with his stepdad.  He grew up on a coffee plantation in Chiapas were his mom and stepdad worked cutting coffee.  His stepdad would send him out at three years old with a machete to cut down the mountain, and if he balked would beat him.

I definitely believe in chores for kids, but this is what has given God -honoring, hard work in children a bad name.  The story of some people in Mexico sounds at times so completely unbelievable.  Glenda herself, had her mother die when she was 6 and then was abused by her older brother, which led her to leave home at 13 years old to be with her current "husband"(in Mexico many people say they are married, but have not really gone through the legal process.)

Just one more reason to be thankful, in many of the world's countries people still die of hunger, children do the work of men, and baby girls are considered a nuisance.  Praise the Lord for his word and his message of love, justice and redemption through Jesus Christ.

We had a very exciting introduction to homeschooling meeting here in Mexico which was well attended.  It is such a strange thing to the people we know here, but a Christian homeschool mom that we met from Mexico City came and shared with the ladies, and gave them much inspiration to step out in faith.

A family came with their daughter who has Cerebral Palsy, they are looking for help and ideas on taking care of her, in Mexico there are few resources for children with special needs.

We are heading to Sacramento in a week to host a booth at the SCOPE conference.  It will be a great opportunity to encourage families to take the plunge and do a family mission trip.  We just listened to a C.D by Sally Clarkson, and she like many other homeschool leaders was urging families to take their children into miinistry with them.  It is definitely life changing to help the poor and needy, and incredible that it is so close to rich, and beautiful U.S.A.

We had a young Mexican man from Chiapas come help us with some projects this morning.  He has three children, ages 6 and under and I know his wife works cleaning new homes, so I asked him who was watching his children.  He had left them in his trailer by themselves. We soon sent him home, which was an incredible ordeal in itself because it had been raining and the roads quickly turn into a substance not unlike ice with a bit of rain.  Scott drove him up to his place, barely making it back down our driveway without careening off into a ditch.   The man's wife would later have to walk several miles through the mud and rain to get herself home.  This man is making plans to cross into the U.S because his brothers are there making the wonderful sum of 8 an hour, here his wife makes about 17 dollars a day, working at housecleaning, he makes around 20.  We have shared with them the difficulties for families when seperated by husbands crossing into the states, but the promise of better wages is an enticing prospect.

So many people in the world are living in such difficult circumstances, we can hardly imagine.  I am thankful today for a refrigerator, a car and the opportunity to be home with my children.

Today we are working on flapbooks to present the information we have learned about the Middle Ages. It is another reason I find homeschooling so fun.  It is so great to see my children excited about digging up information and presenting it in a beautiful way.

It is sunny here and I had a great weekend planting a few trees and some flowers to be a screen and windbreak for our house down here.  My mom and sister came and brought a load of plants.  I love having things growing around me.  I am also looking forward to the next Mexican homeschool meeting.  We are going to be blessed with a flapbook demonstration by the a few of the lovely ladies from StewardShip. 

I listened to this sermon today on hope by John Piper.  It was such an encouragement to me as many aspects of my life right now fall into the category of tribulation.   The loneliness of working in a different culture, the sheer work involved in caring for an infant, homeschooling four other children, doing a rigorous therapy with my daughter who has special needs.  There is also the tension involved in living in a dangerous area.  We trust God for His protection, and He has provided it faithfully, but we are near a city that had a murder every day last year, living in a house without even a phone to call 911(or whatever the emergency number is in Mexico.)  On top of the wondering of whether we are safe is the labor of washing and hanging laundry, emptying the bucket of dishwater and trying to keep a concrete floor clean.   With all these factors rolling like a snowball toward me, I felt discouraged and wishing for an escape from difficulty.

The message on hope is not that things will be instantly easier, but that Christ, who is our hope has walked the path ahead of us.  I don't need to keep looking at the trials, I need to look at Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 12)

We are now living in the house in Mexico.  It promises to be an exciting and challenging place for families interested in missions to come visit.  When I arrived Saturday two weeks ago my husband had just dropped a bathroom sink in the kitchen so we could wash our hands and dishes and stuck a bucket under to catch the water.  We had propane to run the donated stove, but after dark followed each other around like a school of fish to stay where the light was.  Everyday some small improvement has happened, first it was running water upstairs, then a solar panel so we could flush the toilet without turning on a generator. 

My children are really enjoying the pioneer life.  We unfortunately have no land to farm, but have planted a few veggies out front and do have the beautiful Pacific Ocean to look at.  Some days this seems fun, but when I spend an hour doing dishes, wash, rinse, boil, empty bucket, or try to sweep the concrete floor I sometimes grow tired.  The first week was really quiet, we had been living in a busy suburb with phone service, to be out in the middle of nowhere, yet close to big, scary Tijuana was at times unnerving.  We really enjoyed the few visitors we had and Scott and Emelie had an enjoyable morning at the Mexican church we had attended our first year here.

We are settling in, each day is a little better, and we fall in bed at night, tired yet thankful for all the ways God has cared for us, and the way our children are able to see His power displayed on our behalf through protection and help each day.

Here is a belated update on God's provision for the birth of our daughter.  We ended up with an emergency c-section, a major change of events from our original plan of a home birth.  It was like an episode of an emergency room television show.  I, after several episodes of unexplained bleeding, and with the hospital unwilling to send me home, consented to be induced.  This led to an even more dramatic bleeding episode in the hospital room.  Suddenly the room was filled with doctors and nurses.  God gave me great peace as the doctor hastily explained the possible side effects of the surgery, death was one he mentioned.  Then I was wheeled through the halls, covered in blood, my husband and daughter weeping and left behind.  In the surgery room I was surrounded by strangers, poked and prodded like a Christmas goose, and finally put to sleep.  I had committed my soul into the hands of the Lord as I went in there and did not fear.  When I woke I was shaking from the pain and effects of the medication.  I had been asleep  for two hours.  I, who had avoided any medication in birth so better to bond with my baby, had been seperated from her for the first two hours of her life, as the doctors probed my defenseless uterus to find the cause of the bleeding.  Praise God that although I was, in sense not there, and my husband was not there, He was with me in the operating room, and with my daughter in her first moments of life.

We are rejoicing in the arrival of Ella Rose, thankful for all the kindness shown during the recovery period, and busy with getting moved to the house in Mexico

I hesitate to compare myself with any of the saints, but I am getting the opportunity during this holiday season to relate to how Mary must have felt.  We are due with our 6th child, sometime around the 17th of the December and are still unsure where we will be.  We made plans to trek up to Northern California so we could have the baby with the wonderful midwife we have had with the last 4 children.  We would have the baby at my sister's house, surrounded by family.  However as we have been pushing to finish the mission house in Mexico and get our rental house re-rented so we can escape a lease, things have gone slower than we hoped.  Labor has been hard to find, and though my husband and his 70 year old father have worked tirelessly, housebuilding in Mexico is no rapid process. 

So I wait, and pray.  Will it be Kaiser down here, just my husband and I, or the midwife in Northern California.  Either option is fine, it would just be nice to know.

As I think of Mary, not knowing where she would deliver, not being able to set up a

nursery, or have the company of other women, I know that whatever God provides will be all that I need.

I have been busy lately, trying to do special needs stuff with my eleven year old, grade papers for the 8th grader, teach my two elementary boys and prepare for an upcoming move and childbirth.  My four year old has been pretty good about finding constructive things to do, although I have been continually exasperated by his disrespect and poky obedience.  My attempts to discipline him have been met by tantrums, the message was clearly not getting through to him.  I finally realized that what this energetic little guy needed was a bit more constructive guidance.  In one particular episode, I sat him down beside me and told him he could not leave until he calmed down.  He roared a few more times and then went into a big story with sound effects of some make believe happening.  He immediately calmed down and I was able to instruct him. 

It is important as we are raising children to look at discipline issues from many angles.  His disobedience is a result of my neligence in consistent training, however, even in one so young if he is not feeling loved and listened to by me, his heart is not easy to rein in.  If I am dealing with problems with a child, I need to be sure that the remedy is one part correction, and two parts love and encouragement.

He has been much sweeter the last few days.  Still needs help with obedience, but he is listening better.  His latest exploit is filling the bathroom sink with water and floating things.  He found that play dough does not float well.  And I found a sink covered in  gooey, green slime.

All in a days work

I am not waxing very poetic these days, being too busy driving back and forth across the border.  We had a very exciting time in August hosting people who came to help get the mission house built.  It is all ready to be roofed and stuccoed now, and we hope to be living in Mexico again this winter. 

My sisters gave me a baby shower at which we collected blankets to pass out to new moms in Baja.  We collected two bags full, now I just need to order some more of the lovely little tracts from Rod and Staff about welcoming a new baby.  Although most of the Mexican women we know have small families, there does seem to always be someone who is pregnant, and they are very serious about keeping their babies well covered with a blanket.  I can understand why with all the dust and failed smog test vehicles on the roads.

We are still not sure where we will have our baby.  Readers you may pray and if you have any interesting stories about moving and then having a baby or having a baby while traveling, I would love to hear them.  We are staying up to date with prenatal care at Kaiser, although it will be quite a change having a baby there compared to my last four home births.

I found a blog I enjoyed for her emphasis on caring for our preschoolers.  They are such important little people and are in an exciting stage of development.  Let's keep them busy also.  A book with lots of ideas on this is Montessori From The Start, by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen.  Although I don't agree with many of her ideas for infants(not pro breastfeeding and not enough mother child contact) the ideas for toddlers and preschoolers are excellent.  Here are just a few.

1.  Don't over buy toys and be sure that what you do buy is lovely, orderly and developmentally appropriate.  Avoid plastic which will never biodegrade and is not usually lovely, avoid overfull messy toyboxes which discourage orderliness in children.

2.  Teach them while little to care for their hygiene.  Give them a little facecloth and take turns washing their face, give them a turn to brush their teeth and teach them where to put their clothes when soiled.

3.  Give them child sized tools for cleaning.  Most little children would be delighted to sweep up with a small broom, and having a small child organize silverware or socks is a great exercise in categorizing as well as teaching them to help.

4. Teach them to be orderly.  When finished with crayons, they can place them back on a low shelf, give them a place to put finished drawings and have toys sorted into bins or baskets so that cleanup is streamlined.

Hope these are helpful ideas for encouraging and training our special little ones.

I am working my way through the Rainbow Resource catalog, trying to pare down my needs from my wants for next year.  I am very busy with the requirements of my special needs daughter and so trying to keep the curriculum for the 1st and 3rd grader as teacher easy as possible while still sticking closely to my Charlotte Mason, Classical, Ruth Beechick roots. I also have to somehow keep up with what the eighth grader is learning. This means for me, a few workbooks, for when I can't help them and a program like English For The Thoughtful Child for when I can.  I am interested in first grade math ideas.  I am thinking about Singapore, having used it with the two middles, but I also would like to just use the math folder games I have and add a little more manipulatives and drills.  Any suggestions on what is working for you would be helpful.  However if your first grade math requires an hour a day and costs more than $30, leave the suggestion on someone elses blog.  It won't work for me this year.

I guess it is because I am having my 6th, or maybe my increasing age, but I have been so tired.  Night, when I would normally be online, finds me supine in bed at a very early hour.  I just slogged my way through Emma, by Jane Austen during this prone time.  Not my favorite of her works, but a good vocabulary builder. 

Speaking of books, I have begun selling Usborne.  They have many Spanish titles at a good price, which we can use in ministry, as well as a resource I can offer the few other homeschooling missionaries in our field.  If anyone would like to order from me, simply click on the highlighted word above.

Scott has been busy in Mexico, he has a foundation on the first house, which will serve as our residence/guest house until we can get a second one built.  We are very excited about offering missions opportunities to families with such easy access to California.   We have learned so much about the Lord, and ourselves by living outside of our culture.  Even now, living in the U.S, but within miles of the border, I feel that I am in a different culture.  Always, everywhere there are opportunities around us to shine like lights in a dark world.

I am back from a great visit with many sweet people, although there were many special people that I did not get to see.  I am enjoying the first trimester of pregnancy; the dependence on food, the few minutes a day of feeling good, the rapidly expanding waistline(not enough to look cute and pregnant, just enough to have no clothes and look chubby)  and feeling so yucky I wish I could lay in bed all day. 

I am busy though, Scott is gone long days right now working on the mission site in Mexico, making progress, and I am trying to help my two little boys learn the first commandment with a promise, as well as doing my neurodevelopmental program with the special girl.  We are all enjoying space to spread out though and God is full of mercy and grace for each new day.

The kids and I are enjoying a nice visit in Northern California with my family.  Scott has been busy each day digging trenches, learning spanish and buying material for the mission site, so it is a nice break for us from the long days without him.  Before we left we took food to a single mother, recently abandoned and took homeschool materials to a few missionary wives, trying to encourage people in that way.

In my last post about moving into the house, I failed to add that it was also partially motivated by the fact that we discovered I was pregnant.  We are excited but Scott had recently read about the higher mortality rate near the border, and Tijuana particularly is a pollution nightmare.  Just another reason to plunk his family down somewhere a bit safer, while he plugs away at the mission site.

I am thankful to be called somewhere so close to family and friends(9 hours) but do often long for a place in the country, with clean air and few cars. The mission site does have a bit of a country feel though, for which I am grateful, and I do hope many of you will have the opportunity to experience both the beauty of the hill overlooking the Pacific, and the joy of helping the poor in Mexico.

We have finally moved into a house, except it is on the U.S side of the border.  We had been looking and looking in Mexico and the selection was incredibly bad.  Houses with the washing machine in the front yard of a busy street, urine soaked carpet, mold covering the ceilings.  Stairways without railings, concrete yards, and landlords adding hundreds on the rent because we are Americans. 

My husband came to the conclusion that if he were going to be able to complete his project, a house where families can come and experience missions, he needed to get his family settled somewhere safe.  Although I feel bad to be less able to help the people of Rosarito personally, I am thankful to be in a clean little house, on a paved road, with water that I can wash my vegetables in.  I am also thankful for the opportunity to get my children around homeschoolers again.   We missed all the fellowship with other homeschool families that we had enjoyed while living in the States.  So, for better or worse, we are in a suburb, missing the country, but really happy to have running water, flushing toilets and a full sized refrigerator.

My parents came down to visit us last weekend.  We were trying so hard to find a rental before they arrived so that we could enjoy a relaxing weekend  together.  It was not to be.  So we shared a very close weekend in our trailer,  thankful for the pull-out in the "living room."

It was great to have them near for a few days.  The last few months have been very draining and to have close friends to bounce ideas off of was helpful.  We went to the property in Mexico and my mom had fun trying to identify the different shrubs.  We then visited my friend whose husband has just left her for another woman, fairly common down there. 

"My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness"

I read this by Richard Wurmbrand, "I have known no believer who at some time or other did not struggle with his faith because of pain. Why should a good God  have ordained pain?  "Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself," wrote Albert Schweitzer.

Experience has shown us that what is not painful does not work.  We do harm to our bodies with smoking, excessive drinking, poor eating habits and promiscuity.  Our soft choices may lead us to cancer and heart disease, but because we feel no pain before it is too late we continue these suicidal practices.  Pain is the sign of the intense desire of God to do us good.

If God permits suffering, we can be sure it is more painful for Him who permits it than for us who bear it.  If we had His wisdom and sought our salvation as passionately as He seeks it for us, we would choose to embrace or walk through the very sufferings that afflict us.  Therefore, believers bear with understanding the suffering imposed upon them.

Dostosyevski, sentenced to death in his youth and pardoned when he was already on the gallows said that in the moment when he slipped from the noose around his neck, he had an illumination: "As an atheist I had been in prison even when I was free, but now jail has  become for me the gate to freedom."'

Do 21st century American Christians really understand God?

I'm pretty sure those Christians in persecuted countries understand better.

I have to say I am glad to be here on HSB, there are a whole lot of homeschoolers out there, it is funny how the ones who are so opposed to spanking or violence will use the most violent of words to describe people in disagreement with them.

I don't want a debate, but it is strange for me to think that there are Christians who do not believe that God would ever "discipline" His children.  All through the Old Testament, the Israelites are having to be brought back into line, sometimes violently for straying from His way.  It is often just natural consequences coming to bear but in every case disobedience to God brings consequences.  Why wouldn't every Christian, every parent, want their child to realize that.  Bad decisions bring pain, it is an obvious principle,  but Americans love to stick their head in the sand regarding suffering. 

Isaak Dinesen wrote, "The true aristocracy and the true proletariat of the world are both in understanding with tragedy.  To them it is a fundamental principle of God and the key-the minor key-to existence.

John Piper has more to say on suffering in the Christian life, as adults we can realize it is a path to greater wisdom, it is coming anyhow, it is better to be ready than to fight against it.  What benefit is it to our children to completely avoid it until they encounter it in the great big world?

I found this funny survey on a friends xanga site.  It defined me as a hemp nappy, concerned about fair trade and fighting consumerism.  Mostly fits, although I can also get pretty excited about a cute pair of made in China flip flops, eschewing my principles to look cute.  Anyhow try it and let me know how you score.

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We were in Mexico today and heard the sad news that a deacon in the church we are at there has left his wife.  At the same service we witnessed astonishingly provacative behavior from a Jr high student there for a mission trip.   Let us pray for one another, that God would give us the ability to be lights for Him.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time because the days are evil.  Ephesians 5:15-16

Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 6:11

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Ephesians 6:18

I have been reading The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori.  She is an interesting writer, some of her ideas are very helpful and others just plain silly but one thing I appreciate about her writings are the ways she illuminates the needs of children to be involved in meaningful work.  I find the principle so true in the lives of my 3 and 5 year old boys.  When they have something interesting to do, putting away silverware, cutting up scrap paper, or lining up number cards, they feel happy and fight less, but when they are at loose ends for a meaningful task or when the older people in the family keep pushing them off they turn to screaming and destructive behavior.  How much time we could save ourselves with correcting bad behavior if we would just keep them busy with opportunities and choices for constructive behavior.  And how much stress they would avoid, by having the satisfaction of knowing they are a blessing to the family, not just in their cuteness, but in their developing abilities as well.

Today I had a few minutes to run to the library by myself, something incredibly rare these days.  I had a nice chat with my mom via a cell phone, I was complaining about being tired of living in a trailer and doing my dishes outside in a dishpan and she said, "You know, I think you are stronger than you are acting, you really don't have it that bad."  I was a little appalled at first, I mean, most 21st century Americans live in at least 1500sq ft and I'm pretty sure all of them have some kind of plumbing system.  It did get me thinking though.  If nobody else feels sorry for me then I seem kindof foolish to be walking around so woeful over a few little inconveniences.

I got back in the car with a fresh load of books, my own library being out of reach in storage and decided to be happy.  I belted out a few songs,  "Ho ho ho hosannah"   and  "Rejoice in the Lord Always," and thanked God for my blessings, a husband who loves the Lord, sweet children and incredible friends.  It really seemed to work.  God gave me grace to be cheerful and kind even in my circumstances, and even to my visionary husband.

We are still living in the trailer, and I can see months more once we get on the property and begin building.  I have really struggled with a poor me attitude.  We are near an area where the median home price is 600,000 and it seems like everyone else is able to take care of their family in a house! 

This week though a homeschool mother of 6 children from a local church died suddenly, leaving behind young children and a husband who had just lost his job. 

It certainly made my struggles seem miniscule in comparison.  I am able to care for my dear children, feed my family and try to be an encourager to my brave husband.  Things these children will no longer know from their own mother.

  When we are tempted to compare and feel that others have an easier path, let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12, paraphrased.

I am reading a new book, Homeschooling Methods, which I have to say I am rather biased towards because it was edited by my good friends the Suarez's and I have a chapter in there.  Even so, I was really encouraged in my own style by reading the chapter by Raymond Moore, and reminded to work on good habits in many of the chapters.

Homeschooling in a travel trailer at a campground certainly has its ups and downs.  I am very consistent because there is no way to let 5 kids run amock in such tiny spaces.  We are doing more P. E because the only outdoor rec is taking them to a park or basketball court and I am starting to read aloud more consistently.  On the other hand it is sadly lacking in activities or space to play for my 3 year old and science and cooking space are extremely poor.  My kids did enjoy my reading a book yesterday called "Flush" about where wastewater goes.  Gross!

We are in a different campground with our trailer today, having come a few hours north to see family. This period of campground living while we work on buying property in Mexico has been so frustrating for me.  Today I especially struggled with a rotten attitude  because while the other parks have all been filled with sweet seniors who my paranoid brain was sure would turn us into CPS for having 5 children, or for keeping them indoors for school or some other nonsense, this campground is not so clean cut.  The R.V.s are older and there are a few families here who have been here for quite a while.  They are what I, in my proud way would call trailer trash,  and I am embarrassed to think that people might think my family is the same way.  Criminals, drug users, whatever it is that makes families live in places like this for the long haul.

But then my heart breaks. In Mexico we work with rough people, but it seems less threatening when they speak a different language, there is no way I could be mistaken for one of them, and their troubles are often more about economics than about bad choices.  However, there but for the grace of God go I, when we are tempted to think that we are better than some other group of people consider this:

Jesus, who knew no sin became sin so that we might be righteous.

Jesus, left heaven to hang out with cold, selfish people like me. and troubled, hurting people like them.

Jesus calls us to follow him, and to love others for His sake.

Lord, teach me to love more, and care about appearances less.

I have been reading How Green Was My Valley  by Richard Llewellyn, a very interesting book about the Welsh people at the turn of the century.  The family depicted were so strong and in many ways so honorable that I found myself inspired to honor my husband more and make the Word of God more prominent in my home.  Towards the end the book goes down hill some as the main character experiments with sin but I found a few quotes noteworthy.

"No man ever made himself more useful to himself or his fellow man by living in filth and dirt"

Because the son was found living in lodgings where the sheets were unchanged and the laundry undone.  A good lesson in diligence from a family without our modern cleaning conveniences.

"Something is strange in the faces of people who live all their lives in a town.  For their lives are full of the clock and their eyes are blind with seeing so many wonders, and they have no pleasure of expectation or prettiness of wish.  Good things are heaped in the windows all round them but their pockets are empty and thus they suffer in their minds, for where they would own, now they must wish, and wishes denied soon turn to a lust that shows itself in the face.  Too much to see, day after day and too much noise for peace, and too little time in a round of the clock to sit by themselves, and think."

Written 1939, sounds like a commentary on consumerism in the U.S.

As I have said, we are living in a very small space while we look for a suitable property in Mexico.  Although this has had its tense moments it also has developed a lot of good relationship in our family.

One of my daughters came to me today with a serious look on her face and a need to confess.  With weeping she shared that a curse word had been coming into her head against her will and to her shame and remorse.  She was so brokenhearted as she shared that after she had watched a movie, Second Hand Lions, that we had allowed her to watch she had been struggling with thinking this word.  I was saddened that through this movie we had unwittingly polluted our children but I was also grateful that because of all the time we share together she was able to come to me.  We as homeschool mothers are able to be so available to our children in the normal things so that when there is a serious issue that they want to discuss we will be the ones with the opportunity to pray with them, comfort them and counsel them.

Praise God for His blessings

We are back in the San Diego area looking for a property in Mexico and waiting to take our 30 ft trailer across the border until we have property with a wall because of the escalation of drug related murders in the Rosarito area.

We are enjoying the opportunity to visit area churches and make new friends before we head back across.

I am also learning patience.  Living in a trailer has never been an ambition of mine and not having a laundry room is the rock bottom in my humble opinion, but day by day I am having more opportunities to relate to the people we are ministering to and to learn to rejoice in trials.

Pray for us that we would quickly find property to minister from and that God would protect us while we are staying in a campground with our precious children

The Igerashi's are a family so sweet and kind

When we came to their house they did not seem to mind

Although we had laundry that never did end

Through thick and thin they remained our friend(friends doesn't rhyme here)

Our arrival was followed by sickness to dread

Yet they did not throw us out on our sickly head.(seven people should be heads)

We sat by their fire, while drinking chai tea

They might have wanted us to flee

But every moment they were generous and fun

And for such good friends this ode is done.

If you have ever worked for the magazine you will know they have an affinity for silly limericks, and I thought it fitting that I dedicate one to this dear family.

We truly were so grateful for their kind hospitality while we visited beautiful Tennessee.